Apart from a starting and shifting clutch for driving operation, conventional drive assemblies for motor vehicles can have a power take-off by means of which working elements can be driven, which have no part in propelling the motor vehicle. For example, such a power take-off comprises a three-wheel gearset that can be driven from the input side of the starting and shifting clutch, and on its output side can drive a power take-off shaft. So that this power take-off shaft does not keep rotating whenever the drive motor is running, a shiftable power take-off clutch is usually provided, which is arranged radially outside the housing of the starting and shifting clutch and also radially outside the transmission. Such a drive assembly with a frictional staring and shifting clutch is known for example from DE 101 52 859 A1, while DE 26 56 669 C2 discloses a drive assembly with a hydrodynamic torque-converter having a bridging clutch and a frictional power take-off clutch.
The disadvantage of these known drive assemblies is that the arrangement of the frictional power take-off clutch radially on the outside takes up a comparatively large amount of fitting space. An improved design is shown by the transmission with a power take-off described in DE 10 2007 053 674 A1, in which the starting and shifting clutch is frictional and the power take-off clutch is a non-synchronized claw clutch. In this case the claw clutch is arranged in the torque flow downstream from the starting and shifting clutch and can be driven by the output side of the latter. Specifically, for this purpose the claw clutch is disposed axially between the starting and shifting clutch and the drive transmission, and radially on the inside in the area of a transmission input shaft, the transmission input shaft being connected to the output side of the starting and shifting clutch.
Although this drive assembly according to DE 10 2007 053 674 A1 has some advantages compared with the drive assemblies according to DE 101 52 859 A1 and DE 26 56 669 C2 in respect of the fitting space required radially on the outside, there is still room for technical improvements. Thus, the power take-off clutch together with the gearwheels of the power take-off are accommodated in a separate, so-termed adaptor housing, but this disadvantageously increases the overall weight of the drive assembly. When the power take-off is to be driven from the input side of the starting and shifting clutch, a second embodiment of DE 10 2007 053 674 A1 provides that in addition to the power take-off clutch described, a so-termed independence claw is provided, by means of which the gearwheel on the input side of the power take-off gearset can be connected to the input side of the starting and shifting clutch. Although this independence claw is arranged in the area of an input housing that accommodates the starting and shifting clutch, but within it, it is axially remote from the starting and shifting clutch and radially close to the transmission input shaft.